Central Ohio's theater community is mourning the loss of a former
leader.
So am I.
Chris Lane, who died at 44, led MadLab from 2006 and 2009 as artistic director.
Since then, Lane remained active as a director and actor, most notably as the co-star of the
most acclaimed short last year in the company’s annual Theater Roulette festival.
"I wouldn’t be in theater if it wasn’t for Chris," said Andy Batt, an actor-director who
served for years as MadLab’s Managing Director.
"Chris was my mentor. He taught me everything I know about this business."
Lane died April 21.

Photo cutline: Chris Lane, seated center with mug, with Lori Cannon, left front row, and John
Dranschak, right front row, and in back row left to right, Nancy Fox and Bruce Hermann, at the
Short North Playhouse for Red Herring’s 24-hour theater festival in October 2002. Dispatch photo:
Tom Dodge

Lane directed the 2009 world premiere at MadLab of
The Killing Room, a surreal psychological drama by mark Cornell that was timely for the
spooky Halloween season.
When I interviewed Lane for a
Weekender feature in advance of that premiere, the last thing he said about his approach
to staging the play resonates in retrospect as one of the best principles to guide a theater
director.
"Some scenes I'd give up the ghost and tell you if it's supposed to be a dream or not. Other
scenes are ambiguous," Lane said.
"I like to keep it that way (ambiguous) and let the audience make up its own mind."
To my mind as a theater critic, that wiser approach respects the audience far more than a
manipulative style of direction that forces cheap laughs or melodramatic emotions.
Lane’s work as a central Ohio director will be missed.

Chris Lane and David Thonnings, left to right, in
The Peach, one of the best playlets from Madlab's Theatre Roulette festival 2012
Credit: MadLab

So will his work as an actor.
Among Lane’s memorable roles were Max Carlson in a MadLab remount of
Comrades Christmas Carol and The Messenger in 2001 and 2004 productions of
Dick Germs, a series of comedy sketches performed by FFN, MadLab’s resident improv-comedy
troupe.
Lane also earned plaudits for his direction of
Cat in Her Head, one of the outstanding shorts in MadLab’s 2007 edition of its Theatre
Roulette festival.
"When we were selecting scripts, Chris was the only one who liked it. He championed it, made
it work and made it fantastic," Batt said.
"He had a vision for theater that many of the rest of us missed."
Lane not only was a respected actor and director, but also wrote several plays produced at
MadLab and elsewhere. For example, Lane wrote
Hound Dog and Me, a 25-minute comedy-drama about self-sabotage by a man coping with
friendships while struggling with inner demons. The short was a Theatre Roulette hit.

Chris Lane, left to right, and Andy Batt in Lane’s play
Hound Dog and Me, part of MadLab’s Theatre Roulette 2011. Credit: Madlab

A native of Fort Wayne, Indiana, Lane grew up in Kentucky and attended
Cumberland College in Kentucky. After college, he and his first wife moved to Columbus in the early
1990s. His second wife Tay Dreher Lane is a former MadLab ensemble member.
"Chris was a big personality. His laughs would fill the room," Batt said.
"He committed 100 percent to everything he did. It was ‘go hard or go home.’"
Lane also started a rock band Sinister Jim, which performed from about 2008 to 2010, and was
instrumental in creating the improv scene in Columbus, teaching at Carolyn Harding's improv school
Ciniblue and going on to coach many of those performers as they formed their own improv
troupes.
"People referred to Chris as the Godfather of Columbus Improv," Batt said.

During Batt’s early years in theater and at MadLab, he only had small
roles. "But Chris was so great about letting me sit behind him as he directed a show and
letting me bombard him with questions," Batt said.
Batt met Lane in 1998 when Lane directed Batt and other cast members in a production of
Shakespeare’s romantic comedy
As You Like It at Rosebriar Shakespeare Company.
"I’ve never worked with anyone who could get more out of actors as a director," Batt said.
"The man was a teacher. Everyone who worked with him felt that they came out of the process
better than when they went in."

Actor David Thonnings was among many who felt that way.
"He was fantastic to work with," Thonnings said.
"I did a lot of improv with Chris, and under him as a director. He taught me so much about
comedy."
Thonnings co-starred with Lane in
The Peach, a stand-out last year in MadLab’s Theatre Roulette festival.
"He was the type of person who was so easy to work with onstage and off," Thonnings said.
"When you can deliver good performances and still have fun onstage without goofing off, that’s
the (ideal)."

In fact, thanks in part to Lane’s fine acting,
The Peach was one of the best playlets I’ve ever seen at a Theatre Roulette – and I’ve
reviewed the vast majority of them since the annual festival (now in its 14th year, and continuing
through May 25) began.
I gave Lane and his co-star, David Thonnings, a good review last year for their performances
in
The Peach, part of the opening bill of Theatre Roulette 2012.
Lane played the boss with just the right balance of deadpan comedy and understated menace
opposite Thonnings as a slow-witted character who takes orders from his boss to kill people – a job
he enjoys very much.
Here’s an excerpt from my 2012
Dispatch review:
"Philadelphia playwright Alex Dremann, who contributed to three previous Roulette festivals,
returns with a peach of a comedy called
The Peach.... When the employee receives a printed message to kill himself, the scenario
evokes two of the Three Stooges. Then, as the stakes rise and Jake begins to think he should also
do away with his boss,
The Peach gets even better, with absurdist echoes of
No Exit or
Waiting for Godot."

And now, sadly and at far too young an age, Lane has taken his final bow
and last exit from the stage of life.

Donations in Lane’s memory can be made to MadLab Theatre and Gallery. For
more information, visit
www.madlab.net